Palma, Olaeta Shine In Series Finale Against UTRGV

Saturday, February 13

Edinburg, Texas

11 AM

California Baptist University

18-0,10-0WAC

UT Rio Grande Valley

4-9,0-4WAC

California Baptist

UTRGV

Palma, Olaeta Shine In Series Finale Against UTRGV

2/13/2021 1:37:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

By: Daniel Cook, Assistant Director of Athletics Communications

EDINBURG – California Baptist University women's basketball closed out its fifth conference sweep of the season Saturday afternoon, as it took down The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley by a score of 79-64. The Lancers improve to 18-0 overall, 10-0 in the Western Athletic Conference and pull within one game of tying inactive Princeton for the longest active win streak in the nation at 22 in a row.

The win was highlighted by a trio of Lancers who led the charge. Sydney Palma was spectacular, as she scored 23 points on 9-9 shooting and 4-4 from beyond the arc. Palma scored when it mattered most, with 18 of her game-high 23 coming after UTRGV took a 42-40 lead in the third. Caitlyn Harper recorded her fifth double-double of the season, with 13 points and 11 rebounds, while Ane Olaeta notched her second-straight double-double with 13 points and 11 assists.

⭐️⭐️ Sydney Palma woke up this morning and chose perfection. Glad she's on our team! #LanceUp⚔️ pic.twitter.com/aq8DOAzjl7
— CBU WBB 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 (@CBUwbb) February 13, 2021

Saturday's game started off familiar enough, as the Lancers built a 21-9 lead with under a minute left in the first quarter. The Vaqueros were not content with making it easy for the Lancers, as they went on runs of 8-0 to begin the second quarter and 6-0 to end the half. It put UTRGV down by just two at halftime.

UTRGV would take its first lead of the game with 7:29 left in the third when a pair of free throws put it up 42-40. Following that, the Lancers' posts get the offense rolling. With both Britney Thomas and Harper on the floor at the same time, the duo would go on to score the Lancers' next seven points, which would eventually turn into an 11-0 run in the third quarter.

The Lancers are on a 19-5 run! 11-0 run just in the past three game minutes!#LanceUp⚔️ pic.twitter.com/MPQHTwI0PD
— CBU WBB 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 (@CBUwbb) February 13, 2021

The Lancer defense truly closed out the game, as it held UTRGV to 3-20 shooting (15.0 percent) from the field and just 1-7 (14.3 percent) from three. It made it impossible for the Vaqueros to even begin a second comeback.

📏 Five-seven Taylor Wu gets a clean block on UTRGV's six-five Burcu Soysal which turns into two points for fast-breaking Ane Olaeta!#LanceUp⚔️ pic.twitter.com/nc5E1XKSBh
— CBU WBB 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 (@CBUwbb) February 13, 2021

THE BIGGER PICTURE

Individually, Olaeta added 11 more assists to her season total, pushing it up to 138, and improved her season average to 8.12 -- both of which lead all of women's college basketball. In fact, Olaeta is the only player in the nation currently averaging eight or more assists per game. Thomas is among the nation's most efficient shooters, scoring at a 64.5 percent clip -- the second-best mark in the nation.

As a team, the Lancers have racked up 393 assists, which is good for the second most in the NCAA. They average 21.8 per game, the second-highest average in Division I, and their 1.5 assist-to-turnover ratio is the third-best mark. CBU is getting it done on the defensive end of the floor, as well, ranking sixth in the nation in defensive three-point percentage (23.2) and third in field goal percentage defense (31.7).

WHAT'S NEXT

CBU will host its final regular season series this weekend as Grand Canyon makes the trip to Riverside for a pair of games. The series begins Friday afternoon with a 2 p.m. tip.